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2008 Steven Kent "Lineage" Proprietary Blend

In the nose, the ’08 Lineage shows its pedigree in the complex commingling of black fruits, exotic woods, and spice aromatics. Though comprising only 9% of the blend, the rich notes of sandalwood, cherry fruit, and fresh-pressed coffee that typify Cabernet Franc show through a lush core of cassis and semi-sweet chocolate. In the mouth, this wine owes much of its mid-palate fleshiness and tannin to Clone 191 Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, and Malbec. The 2008 Lineage is a wine of great elegance and structure, and it is in these two fundamental characteristics that Clone 30 Cabernet Sauvignon makes its voice heard. Very young now, this wine would benefit from at least three years of bottle age; with proper cellaring, it should reward patience well into the second decade of the century.

The Steven Kent Winery was started in 1996 with the planting of our vineyard site and a mission to produce distinctive Cabernet from the Livermore Valley that could compete in quality with any other appellation. Our first vintage – 1996 – was released three years later to much acclaim, setting a quality benchmark for Cabernet from Livermore. Though not beholden to 100% Cabernet wines, desiring instead to produce the best possible offering, most of our releases have been varietally pure. Our experience working with Livermore Valley fruit has shown this varietal, grown here, to be a hallmark of both complexity and grace.

The Livermore Valley AVA is an American Viticultural Area in Alameda County, California, surrounding the city of Livermore in the Tri-Valley region. Both the AVA and the city are named after Robert Livermore, a landowner whose holdings encompassed the valley. The groundwater basin underlying the valley is the Livermore Basin, the largest sub-unit of which is the Mocho Subbasin. The Livermore Basin is one of five aquifers in the San Francisco Bay Area that supply most of the metropolitan Bay Area population. The entire Livermore Basin aquifer faces a concern over elevated total dissolved solids by the year 2020 due to an expanding human population leading to higher rates of return water flows to the aquifer containing certain salts.